Think of the game grid as being city blocks as viewed from an airplane or satellite. The numbers indicate the height of the buildings. (1 = low rise, 3 = mid rise, 5 = high rise) The numbers outside the grid indicate the number of buildings you can see from that location. The following examples are for a 5 x 5 grid:

Oh yes. The top view was what I would have needed in the explanation as well - I thought the number were floor numbers, and I couldn't see that work at all. Perhaps the explanation could be edited to include this?

I'm glad someone worked out that it was 3d viewed from above...as for the current explanation, rules and demo, sorry but it's awful WITHOUT THAT CRITICAL BIT OF INFORMATION

Personally I would think you need some sort of 3d viewer (ie the ability to rotate the view) and have the "buildings" show ..otherwise to get any sort of appreciation of them as being "skyscrapers" is pretty fanciful methinks...

Don't get me wrong, I love conceptis puzzles, but this "skyscrapers" strikes me as something where someone at Conceptis tried to "invent" a new game and the whole thing went off half-cocked.

ORIGINAL: tdh777 ... this "skyscrapers" strikes me as something where someone at Conceptis tried to "invent" a new game and the whole thing went off half-cocked.

Actually, I've seen this sort of puzzle before, and at least two years ago. I am pretty sure that this showed up in a National Puzzlers League contest, as well as the International Puzzle Championships. As it was vaguely familiar, I had a bit of an advantage, otherwise, I would have had trouble figuring out what we were supposed to do.

Now if only I was able to actually solve the medium freebies this week No matter what I try, I am forced to use guess-work at some point. This certainly does not make me want to try anything harder! I am not so sure that another clue isn't needed to make the mediums actually "medium".

The text is in German, but you can use Google Translate. Like the introduction says, they don't know who invented these puzzles. The player on the site has copyright between 2003-2012.

Did you all read at least the basics on skyscraper techniques or check the tutorial. For me the puzzles were challenging, but understandable. I am still working on the hard ones, but I am very excited about them!